manage your time - manage your life
TRANSCRIPT
MANAGE YOUR TIME. YOUR LIFE.
How to remain stress-free hustling with work and life
Author: Thang Bui – CEO
Email: [email protected]
All rights reserved © BraveBits JSC
PROBLEMS Understand the “Why” before doing anything
TOO MUCH THINGS TO DO.
TOO LITTLE TIME.
Everyday I need to:
➤ Check emails from 12 mail boxes, resulting in nearly hundred emails to process.
➤ Check around 20 issues of staff.
➤ Check feedback form and process entries
➤ Check roadmap of projects I’m in charge and think about what to do next.
➤ Get daily dose of knowledge.
➤ Get my own shit done, which is normally 20 tasks.
My head would blow up, if I don’t have system to manage.
TASKS ARE POPPING UP UNEXPECTEDLY. Tasks are coming from everywhere:
➤ Walking on the street
➤ Washing teeth
➤ Sitting in the toilet
➤ Participating in the meeting
➤ Having conversation with people
All those ideas and tasks need to be captured, right when they appear, but give no distraction for current activity.
MIND GOT STRESSED BECAUSE OF MULTI-TASKING.
Remember the day, when you managed to sit alone and get something really big done?
Feels good right?
Now, recall the day, when everybody tried to ask you something and you ended up at 18:00 knowing that you haven’t done shit.
That’s what I’m talking about!
Multi-tasking sucks!!!
SOLUTION How to manage time?
MODIFIED VERSION OF GETTING THINGS DONE (GTD) A system based on principle called Getting Things Done by David Allen (GTD), that gives you:
➤ Stress-free. No need to worry about tasks to do. They are all captured in the system.
➤ No missing. If organized well, system will show what to work on at certain time.
➤ Enhanced focus. Once you picked the tasks, you can just focus on it.
➤ Collect Whenever task comes, thru it to inbox and forget it (for now).
➤ Process When time is right, process items in inbox with set of rules.
➤ Organize When ready for next task, picking it from lists.
➤ Review Be clear about goals and keep tasks aligned to goals.
➤ Do Start working on task with full focus, without distractions.
ALL TASKS GOES THRU 5 STEPS:
COLLECT Put everything to inbox. I mean EVERYTHING.
➤ Tasks you decided to do after meeting
➤ Ideas that just popped out from nowhere
➤ Things that came to you from Facebook and you want to check later
➤ Etc.
Whatever came to you:
➤ Just put it to inbox and forget it.
➤ Don’t lose focus on what you are working on.
➤ You will get back to them when it’s time for tasks processing.
PROCESS After you finished some task, go to inbox to process items with following rules:
➤ If task is not relevant anymore, trash it.
➤ Sometimes you will capture crazy idea that only matter at the moment of the capture, but later you realize it’s doesn’t matter.
➤ If the task can be done within 5 mins, just do it.
➤ If it will take more than 5 mins, then move to list “To do” and:
➤ Do it
➤ Set tag “onfocus”
➤ Set priority
➤ Delegate it
➤ Create issue in JIRA
➤ Defer it
➤ Set tag for respective projects
ORGANIZE Start picking tasks from lists
➤ Today
➤ Task that have due date set for today. Repeating tasks will appear on the day it need to get done.
➤ On focus
➤ Task that have tag “onfocus”.
➤ My To do
➤ Tasks that have priorities 1 or 2.
DO ➤ Set priority to 1.
➤ Process task with details in notes.
➤ Create subtasks if necessary.
➤ Block distraction when start the task.
➤ Use “Self Control” app to block Facebook.
➤ Set Skype to “Don’t disturb” mode.
➤ Put headphones on.
➤ Go somewhere quiet.
REVIEW Very important to keep tasks aligned to goals.
➤ Review goals
➤ Ultimate goal As stated in personal commitment list.
➤ Monthly goal As stated in Workplace.
➤ Check tasks based on project tags and update tasks priorities, so they pop up in list “My todo”.
➤ Review tag “onfocus” to keep list “On focus” precise.
KEEP PRACTICING It is hard and takes time!
GET GOOD TOOL My personal toolset to be productive
➤ Remember the milk Keep all tasks. Losing this will literally reset my life :D
➤ Self Control Blocks distraction, mainly Facebook for certain amount of time. Without this, I will just keep opening browser and type “fa” from time to time :(
➤ Rescue Time Tracks my activities during the day to keep me on track.
Just it, 3 tools which: tell me what to do, help me to focus on the job and provide me metrics about my productivity.
KEEP LEARNING There is always ways to improve anything we do in life. Keep learning!
➤ About productivity Google for “best resources on productivity”
➤ About GTD Google for “best resources on gtd”
LEARN. IMPROVE. REPEAT I haven’t discovered another way of building an habit. Just need to keep the loop running.
GOOD LUCK! Have more things done. Be more successful
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